Ryan's First Day

Imagine it’s your first day at BrewDog. Now imagine it’s your first day at BrewDog and you’re being grilled about it. This is kind of what happened to Ryan, our latest recruit, who – after a long haul flight from Australia with three brutal stop overs – stumbled in, bleary-eyed to join the brew team. Ryan's never been out of Oz before; just as well he made his first stop Ellon.

Despite having been awake for 28 hours and counting, Ryan was remarkably chipper; the stainless steel perhaps had something to do with that:

“My first day at BrewDog has been incredible. Walking into the brewery to see a sea of stainless steel was an amazing experience; my eyes just glazed over.

“The brewery I worked at before in Australia was called Southern Bay and was a contract brewery – we brewed for businesses that didn’t have their own brewery.

“The kit we were using was much older and the brewery was much smaller. The set-up here is just out of this world in comparison.”

Unlike some of our other brewers, Ryan didn’t study brewing. It was his love of home brewing that opened the door at BrewDog:

“I can still remember the day I tried craft beer for the first time. What intrigued me most was how good beer is made so after that day I spent a lot of time researching and dabbling in home brewing.

“Up until this point I’d actually been working as a test driver for Ford. I spent most of my day driving round and round in circles listening to brewing podcasts.

“One day I got out of the car. Shut the door and said to myself – I’m going to become a brewer.”

As Ryan's career in brewing took off, he quickly established a dislike towards mass produced, commercial beers which meant he felt an instant connection with the BrewDog cause. He didn’t mind our beers either:

“I first heard about BrewDog when Tactical Nuclear Penguin was released as the world’s strongest beer. Everyone seemed to be talking about this little Scottish brewery that was on a mission to get people to drink decent beer.

“The more I understand about craft brewing the more it confuses me that people continue to drink mass produced, sub standard beer.

"Personally I love dark beers and really sour beer too. There was a local brewery in Australia called Red Duck that made some incredibly sour beers; so sour your mouth turns inside out like you’re sucking on a lemon!”

So what’s Ryan looking forward to most…other than some sleep and not feeling jetlagged?

“I just want to learn from the best. I still can’t believe I’m here…I was interview over Skype of all things!

“I also want to check out the bars and start working my way through the beer menus there. Oh, and also try some haggis!”

Want to check in on Ryan to see how he's getting on? Following us on Facebook for #BrewPix of Ryan and the rest of the brew crew at work.